Oilfield Production Surveillance as a Management Tool for Environmental Monitoring

Oilfield production surveillance is the effective monitoring of petroleum reservoirs, producing wells, flow station facilities and flow lines. Through surveillance, the production of unwanted effluents (formation water, excess gas, etc.) can be controlled. Production problems such as sand production, emulsion, corrosion, scale formation and wax blockage can lead to disposal problems and poor integrity of facilities and consequent financial losses. This paper presents a system approach for carrying out oilfield production surveillance process. Using case studies it is shown that the process can be used to identify unfavourable conditions such as gas leaks, corrosivity, and unsafe wells. It is further recommended that the frequency of surveillance should be monthly

Formulation of best-fit hydrophile/lipophile balance-dielectric permittivity demulsifiers for treatment of crude oil emulsions

The commerce of crude oil depends heavily on its water and salt contents usually referred to as Basic Sediments and Water (BS&W), which is co-produced with the crude oil in the form of emulsion. The lower the BS&W, the higher the market value of the crude. The presence of water in crude oil causes corrosion, lowers capacity utilization of production and processing plant parts and pipelines, reduces oil recovery and increases the oil content of the effluent water. The stabilizing factors of crude oil emulsions vary from one oil field to the other and with time in the same well as co-produced water increases, or after a well treatment and Enhanced Oil Recovery Operations (EOR). Periodical assessment and possible change of demulsifiers employed is therefore necessary at certain stages of crude oil productions, but this is not encouraged due to lack of general formulation procedures and the rigorous nature of bottle test method that is currently being used for assessment and selection. In this paper, the factors that affect the stability of crude oil emulsions are presented. Efforts of researchers in formulating demulsifiers based on these factors and their screening methods were reviewed. The context sets the stage for further exploration of possible relationship(s) between the physical parameters of the crude oil and the demulsifiers, and exploiting same in the formulation of new demulsifiers capable of resolving crude oil emulsions using chemicals with improved surface activity and crude extracts of indigenous plants